The Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB), a consortium of business and environmental organisations, including CDP, have worked with software development company Arkk Solutions and the carbon and climate change advisory firm Promethium Carbon, to test this method of financial and non-financial reporting to the CDP, using Kumba as the first submission. The software is based on eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL).

The intention is to improve the quality and accessibility of environmental data by enabling companies to tag their data using XBRL. This will help to automate the sharing of business information. “However, it is important that we apply human experience to our development of digital environmental reporting. That is what this project provides,” said Robbie Louw, director of carbon advisory firm Promethium Carbon.

Kumba, a business unit of global miner Anglo American, is the fifth largest producer of seaborne iron ore in the world and Africa’s leading producer of the commodity. Kumba says it is driven to minimise the company’s environmental impacts.

“With the first XBRL submission to the CDP, Kumba supports the development of environmental reporting. This is coupled with other environmental initiatives implemented by Kumba including an ongoing diesel energy efficiency management project on our transportation fleet, energy efficiency programmes such as installing solar geysers on change houses, mine houses and hostels as well as the installation of LED lights throughout workshops and offices,” said Rodgers Mundembe, environmental manager, Kumba.

Various water management programmes have been implemented by Kumba such as controlling spray water on the coarse and fine lines through a gravity feed as well as reducing the power requirement for water pumping.

Kumba has an internal energy, greenhouse gas emissions and water tracking and forecasting web-based database. These databases are used to track the progress of the energy-efficiency initiatives and water-efficiency projects, in order to reach company targets.

Promethium Carbon assists large, listed corporations with their carbon and water disclosures to the CDP. Louw said that with the need for companies to monitor their progress in climate change mitigation actions year-on-year, XBRL provides the necessary structure and functionality.

“We are excited to be part of this pioneering phase for the CDP. Kumba, whom we assisted in the pilot testing of XBRL, is eager to see how it can possibly incorporate this new way of reporting in their wider reporting cycle and totrack its annual progress,” said Louw.

Mr Mundembe said that several opportunities where identified during the pilot. “The advantages of easy year-on-year comparisons of data submissions, as well as the possibility to use climate change data consistently in different reports such as the company’s annual report, were found to be especially important to the company.”